Human Slide Rule 2013-04-19

[Jabberwonky]

If you don't know who Roy is, SHAME ON YOU.

Roy!

roy_rogers_and_trigger.jpg (45.05 KiB) Viewed 7756 times

[jwhouk]

Yep. Callback to end all callbacks.

[Opus the Poet]

Too bad we can't do a poll on here, because it'd be ripe for a "Who's our off-panel speaker?" poll.

Options:

• Brandi
• Phix
• Nudge
• Bia
• Mayahuel
• Jin
• Bud
• Tepoz
• Shelly
• Justin
• Tsillah
• Lily/Suzi
• MONICA (!)
• Dietzel (!!)
• Jacqui (!!!)
• ROY (!!!!!!!!)

Who the %&€( is Roy?

[RunningBull]

I think to understand who the unknown speaker is, is to understand how our intrepid duo was "caught". I see two possibilities:

A - the cell phone
2 - the person was already there

If it was the cell phone this person has to be associated with the MIB/Library. Now Brandi was supposedly waiting to meet Lily, and Susie at Mesa Verde. That leaves Phix, Tsillah, and Nudge. Bia is the wildcard. The unknown speaker spoke very calmly, that right there would exclude the vamps, they are too emotional. It was also a smart question. The unknown speaker almost sounds like when Phix was talking to Tina. Tina was terrified, and Phix was calm, nice, no cursing or yelling.

[NOTDilbert]

Too bad we can't do a poll on here, because it'd be ripe for a "Who's our off-panel speaker?" poll.

Options:

• Brandi
• Phix
• Nudge
• Bia
• Mayahuel
• Jin
• Bud
• Tepoz
• Shelly
• Justin
• Tsillah
• Lily/Suzi
• MONICA (!)
• Dietzel (!!)
• Jacqui (!!!)
• ROY (!!!!!!!!)

Not Tina?

[NOTDilbert]

Talking of slide rules -

I was in high school before the widespread use of calculators - those available were expensive, usually only '4-bangers' (+-x/), and used odd entry logic (Reverse Polish Notation is a demon successfully vanquished today). $400 for a four function calculator? Yep.

That's why my HS offered an extra credit course in slide rule use. You could use either the original slipstick kind, or 'newfangled' circular slide rules - I took the class with a circular; also had a plastic ruler-style, and (thanks to my uncle) a 14 inch log-log-log Decitrig in a leather scabbard. (How could you find the engineering students on a college campus? Listen for the slap-slap of the slipstick scabbards as they walked.) The advantages to a circular rule: over-run simply carried around the circle; all scales were on one face (Some weren't like that, though - just like the sticks, you had to flip some of 'em). We never really had a nickname for the circular ones, though, but now that i'm older and -er, less agile - 'slip-disk' comes to mind....

[zachariah]

If you don't know who Roy is, SHAME ON YOU.

And for those avoiding shame: Roy

I don't think you can really say Shame On You for not knowing a name used once in the second strip. Not everyone follows to that detail. Nor should they have to. Anyway the Roy could be someone else, Whoope-Tie-Ya MF, is an obvious leap for some people to make. Ddn't Scoobie-do use Roy a lot too!

[zachariah]

Talking of slide rules -

We never really had a nickname for the circular ones, though, but now that i'm older and -er, less agile - 'slip-disk' comes to mind....

I could get in back of that nick name. It's spine with me.

Drops a brace into the pun jar.

[sheik]

I think to understand who the unknown speaker is, is to understand how our intrepid duo was "caught". I see two possibilities:

A - the cell phone
2 - the person was already there

If it was the cell phone this person has to be associated with the MIB/Library. Now Brandi was supposedly waiting to meet Lily, and Susie at Mesa Verde. That leaves Phix, Tsillah, and Nudge. Bia is the wildcard. The unknown speaker spoke very calmly, that right there would exclude the vamps, they are too emotional. It was also a smart question. The unknown speaker almost sounds like when Phix was talking to Tina. Tina was terrified, and Phix was calm, nice, no cursing or yelling.

I'm partial to 2) because the stargate needs a guardian since there are tourists crawling all over the place, possibly a Mayan deity type.

[NOTDilbert]

I think to understand who the unknown speaker is, is to understand how our intrepid duo was "caught". I see two possibilities:

A - the cell phone
2 - the person was already there

If it was the cell phone this person has to be associated with the MIB/Library. Now Brandi was supposedly waiting to meet Lily, and Susie at Mesa Verde. That leaves Phix, Tsillah, and Nudge. Bia is the wildcard. The unknown speaker spoke very calmly, that right there would exclude the vamps, they are too emotional. It was also a smart question. The unknown speaker almost sounds like when Phix was talking to Tina. Tina was terrified, and Phix was calm, nice, no cursing or yelling.

I'm partial to 2) because the stargate needs a guardian since there are tourists crawling all over the place, possibly a Mayan deity type.

Or maybe something like the Golem Girls, who put in time as temple guardians - Brandi may run into an old co-worker!

(I still think it'd be a hoot if it was Tina - after all, all her regulars are off adventuring, why not close for a week and take some vay-kay?)

[My2Cents]

Too bad we can't do a poll on here, because it'd be ripe for a "Who's our off-panel speaker?" poll.

Options:

• Brandi
• Phix
• Nudge
• Bia
• Mayahuel
• Jin
• Bud
• Tepoz
• Shelly
• Justin
• Tsillah
• Lily/Suzi
• MONICA (!)
• Dietzel (!!)
• Jacqui (!!!)
• ROY (!!!!!!!!)

I'm going to put a vote in for Jin. She was fooling all the gods into thinking she was a time traveller during the calendar loops, so she would probably need a place to work that the library couldn't have any reports on/from, just in case nay of them went to the library to try and look her up information about her.

[Jabberwonky]

Secrets dialog.jpg (13.62 KiB) Viewed 7739 times

It's where Uwe Boll is keeping the scripts for his unfilmed movies!

[GreyWolf]

Okay, I did NOT see that coming! Anyone Atsali's claimed age is too young to know about slide rules except as historical artifacts, and most teenagers have never even seen one in use. So...what's this, young lady?

For one thing, when dealing with supernatural beings, you have to remember that although they may appear and act a certain age, that doesn't mean that is how old they actually are - she could be 15 years old mentally and been that way for the last millenia, for all we know. Look at Shelly, she seemed for the most part to be the same 20-something we've known and loved even after 30 or so millenia in the Forest. Or even if they are that age chronologically, they don't necessarily develop in the same way we do.

I mean c'mon ... we can be concerned about how she knows what a slide rule is, but not that she appears to have a working knowledge of quantum physics and concepts such as 3D recognition of stellar cartography?

[illiad]

If you don't know who Roy is, SHAME ON YOU.

And for those avoiding shame: Roy

I don't think you can really say Shame On You for not knowing a name used once in the second strip. Not everyone follows to that detail. Nor should they have to. Anyway the Roy could be someone else, Whoope-Tie-Ya MF, is an obvious leap for some people to make. Ddn't Scoobie-do use Roy a lot too!

... and there are most likely people here who were not born when roy rogers was popular... :/

.. and no-one has mentioned the abacus, a lot older, and STILL used in many asian countries...

[Jabberwonky]

... and there are most likely people here who were not born when roy rogers was popular... :/

You can just stop that line of thought right now...

[illiad]

Jabberwonky, I dont mean to shock you, but there are young 'uns who *dont believe* that TV used to be only back & white....

Then there is this line from an amercan vistor to UK... do remember we only got 'freeview digital TV' here only a year or so ago!!!!

"hey man!! there's summat wrong with this TV!!!! there are only 5 channels, and NO MTV!!!! "

[Jabberwonky]

Hell, I'm old enough to remember when MTV used to play music...

[Dave]

That's why my HS offered an extra credit course in slide rule use. You could use either the original slipstick kind, or 'newfangled' circular slide rules

"Newfangled"... *chuckle*. That's the type I was first introduced to... the private school I attended handed out the 4" Gilson-made circular rules to us in 7th or 8th grade science class (can't remember whether Dietzgen or Leitz had branded and sold it). Turns out this model dates back to the mid-1930s. A really excellent little device... one of these was the first I located on eBay a few years ago when I started collecting and refurbishing slide rules. (Yeah, I know it's a nerdy hobby, but that surprises nobody who knows me!)

I took the class with a circular; also had a plastic ruler-style, and (thanks to my uncle) a 14 inch log-log-log Decitrig in a leather scabbard.

Your uncle was apparently a man of generous nature and excellent taste

I used one like through high school (a much-begged-for combined Christmas and birthday present). Stolen from my locker during my senior year, alas... replaced by one of HP's earliest programmable calculators (50 steps, woohoo!) which I may still have sitting around in a dusty box somewhere.

[bmonk]

Talking of slide rules -

I was in high school before the widespread use of calculators - those available were expensive, usually only '4-bangers' (+-x/), and used odd entry logic (Reverse Polish Notation is a demon successfully vanquished today). $400 for a four function calculator? Yep.

That's why my HS offered an extra credit course in slide rule use. You could use either the original slipstick kind, or 'newfangled' circular slide rules - I took the class with a circular; also had a plastic ruler-style, and (thanks to my uncle) a 14 inch log-log-log Decitrig in a leather scabbard. (How could you find the engineering students on a college campus? Listen for the slap-slap of the slipstick scabbards as they walked.) The advantages to a circular rule: over-run simply carried around the circle; all scales were on one face (Some weren't like that, though - just like the sticks, you had to flip some of 'em). We never really had a nickname for the circular ones, though, but now that i'm older and -er, less agile - 'slip-disk' comes to mind....

I never had a circular version--but my biggest does have the CF/DF/CIF scales, which are handy. And several I really don't understand at all.


P.S., Illiad: I keep an abacus over my computer, just to encourage it to keep working. You can be replaced by something that always works....

[NOTDilbert]

Yes, yes he was.